Since Candles In The Dark was a singular big level, I segmented the various parts of the level according to the colour of the platforms. Each segment reflected a part of the journey of depression, with the colours getting darker to represent how the world of a depressed person gets duller the deeper they fall into depression.

Player characters are sometimes forced to cling onto the sides of platforms as they slowly inch their way up onto the platform by jumping continuously, reflecting how depressed people often struggle with day to day activities. This allowed me to place platforms slightly higher than the maximum height the character could jump, giving me a little more freedom when it came to placing platforms.

Towards the end of the level, trees begin to appear, signifying how colour has come back into the things around the player. The final tree at the end is encased in a ring of light, representing the purpose for living that depressed people find at the end of the journey.

Every trap door and pressure plate has a unique colour so that it's easy for players to tell which pressure plate will open which door, especially if the door is a ways away from the pressure plate.

The entire level is boxed up so that if the player falls and there's no platform to catch them, they will not encounter a 'game over' and instead need to find their way back. This reflects how in the journey of depression, a single slip up often means falling further than they first started out and there is no going back to the start.

Rocks serve more as minor obstacles that act as little bumps in the otherwise smooth sailing road rather than obstacles that players have to work to overcome.

I used FMOD to integrate the sound into the Unity project, making it easier to manage spatial sound.

I made the background music for this project from scratch. The aim was to create an atmospheric and spacious feeling, but also maintain a sombre theme. Thus a synthesiser is the main instrument in the piece, playing sustain via pads.

Sound effects are quiet and blend into the background so as to not draw too much attention to them. In contrast, the sound effect for candles is bright and short, highlighting the small moments of hope and light that the candles bring.

Flat and simple colours were chosen to reflect the one-note view depressed people often have of the world around them.

Player characters are small in comparison to the world around them, acting as a metaphor for how depressed people often see the world.